Reawakening 2/Summary
''Apocalypse ''(also known formerly as "Reawakening 2: Apocalypse") is the second book in the'' Placebo Effect'' series by Todd Dawson-Cooper and a prequel to Martin Kevil's Reawakening. Apocalypse follows a separate group of survivors who escape the town of Cramburg, Montana before the events of Reawakening and arrive in York, Minnesota The group soon crosses paths with another group of survivors travelling from the city of London, Ontario. Apocalypse was inspired by Fighting For Ithaca's song "Trial By Fire", AMC's The Walking Dead, The CW's Supernatural, Capcom's Dead Rising 2 and George A. Romero's Day of the Dead. Book description It's the end of the world, demonic creatures have begun to rise up from the depths of Inferno, unleashing with them a hellish spiritual infection that turns ordinary humans into nothing but mindless cannibalistic husks. Dontey Bailey and a few others have barely escaped Cramburg, Montana by the skin of their teeth, saved by what little remains of the military and on-route to the last safe-zone in America, things go horribly wrong and the survivors find themselves on the road, starving, and searching for refuge when they end up in a silent ghost town in Minnesota. There, they cross paths with thirteen-year-old Liam Kendall, Leah Patterson, Nick Banter and their rag-tag group of child prodigy survivors, after warming up to one another, dissipating concerns and taking advantage of the brief period of safety, things quickly take a turn for the worst an the supposed sanctuary turns into a death trap. Divided and alone, the survivors find themselves having to survive not only the infected and the demonic saurians that control them, but the less-than-sane humans that reside in the town and the rogue military faction hunting them all. As tensions rise, betrayal and jealousy seep through, and the horrors of human capability through murder, rape and emotional trauma lead the protagonists on a dramatic roller coaster that has Dontey and the others doubting if surviving the apocalypse is worth the struggle, while Liam begins to learn that this isn't the first time he's experienced the end of the world. Development Apocalypse began development on September 8th, 2010 after a conversation had arose on the Jurassic Park Legacy forums regarding comic series Lost Island and Reawakening (both of which had been largely about zombie dinosaurs). To avoid any potential for conflict in the future, Todd Dawson-Cooper aka JurassicTimes had approached Martin Kevil aka Daspletosaurus5000 about a possible crossover between the two stories. When the idea came about, it instantly leaned more towards the Reawakening franchise than the Lost Island/Rise of the Dead franchise and decision was made that it would become the third installment of the Reawakening trilogy; this idea however was changed shortly after, making it the second installment. The idea of the story being a sequel separate of Lost Island/Rise of the Dead came when the issue arose that the majority of the Rise of the Dead series was to take place in 2013-2014, while Reawakening was set to "modern day". Thus, "Rise of the Dead 6: Middleschool of the Dead" was separated from the rest of the series and became the series that Reawakening would crossover with. Reawakening 2 would focus around Liam Kendall, Emily Kaufman and "Gabby" crossing paths with the Reawakening survivors shortly after the group had escaped from Cramburg. They would meet in the town of Getsby, Missouri. There would also be considerably more zombie humans in the comic than zombie dinosaurs and the entire comic would be spent with the two groups working together to reach the edge of town and get gas to bring back to a fortified vehicle. Kevil also had planned that the story should be very complex and involve crime, murder, suspense, tension and gore. These are the elements that would soon separate the installment from the dark horror element of Reawakening and the tragedy element of Junior High of the Dead. Shortly after, Martin Kevil suggested that Reawakening 2 be released shortly after Reawakening was released. On September 11th, 2010, a finished script of the first issue was revealed, it dealt with the main characters of Reawakening (Rick Kevil, Ajay Siddiqui, David Hamming, Rachel Trau, Paul Backman and Phillip Johnson) ending up in a military safe-camp. The safety would be short lived when a zombie Baular (a species of raptor) escapes from it's pen. The few would cross paths with a nurse named Mary, who would take Phil, Paul, and the other Cramburg survivors to a safe-zone in Philadelphia. Shortly after, Rick, Ajay, David and Rachel would would arrive in the town of York, and be rescued from Zombie Velociraptors by Liam Kendall, Leah Patterson, Nick Banter, Stan Marzec, Krista Nguyen. Between 2010 and 2014, Apocalypse has been the least prone to changes, and unlike others in the Reawakening/Placebo Effect franchises, has actually grown rather than changed. Instead of removing scenes and adding new ones, previous scenes were revised and expanded on. This has allowed Apocalypse to become one of the most well developed in terms of character and plot development in both series, with every little scene and character playing a role and having a backstory later expanded on. The biggest change having simply been the swap of the original Reawakening characters (Joseph, Ajay and Meraj) for new ones instead at the request of Reawakening creator Martin Kevil, the deal was made with exchange of having the original characters appear in a cameo in Apocalypse, and the character of Leah Patterson appearing in a cameo in Reawakening. The new Apocalypse characters were created by Martin himself, before being revamped by Todd Dawson-Cooper, alongside reviving the scrapped Reawakening character of Rachel Trau and making the originally two-dimensional character have an emotional background and play a role in Apocalypse that was previous unfilled, of which Martin himself later praised. Choice of title and symbolism At the conception of Apocalypse, the first title for what would be a crossover between Rise of the Dead and Reawakening was chosen as Reawakening: Zombie Apocalypse by Reawakening creator Martin Kevil, this name was then shortened to Reawakening 2: Apocalypse and finally "Apocalypse" by Todd Dawson-Cooper. Originally, the "Apocalypse" was to relate to the religious theme of Rise of the Dead's later installments, and the final showdown between Michael and Lucifer that would occur. A pentagram was even included in the logo replacing the "O" in "Apocalypse". However, when Rise of the Dead 6: Middleschool of the Dead, broke off and became it's own series. The religious concept was scrapped, and the series went on a scientific basis from there on, however the symbolic pentagram remained, while the religious element previously scrapped returned in a new way. Other Symbolic References The dates in which Apocalypse take place is a reference to the original Rise of the Dead series, which took place Friday, September 13th - Saturday, September 14th, 2013. The dates are also symbolic to the Mexican symbolic date of Niños Héroes (in English: Boy Heroes). In which six young cadets died defending their country. The dates in which Apocalypse take place also reference the "Feast of the Cross"; A Christian holiday which commemorates the cross used in the crucifixion of Jesus. Thus tying in with Reawakening's religious aspects. Future In May 2013, Todd Dawson-Cooper posted two posters on the official Facebook page of Junior High of the Dead, confirming the existence of both Apocalypse and an apparent sequel entitled Bonds. Links *Official Website *Official Facebook *Jurassic Park Legacy Hosted Forum --